Effect of Cibacron Blue and Bovine Serum Albumin on Electrical Conductivity of Reversed Micelles

Abstract

The effect of Cibacron Blue 3GA (CB) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) as guest molecules on the microstructure of reversed micelles has been investigated with electrical conductivity measurements. CB as an affinity ligand was directly introduced to reversed micelles formed with a cationic surfactant, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide. The anionic CB has electrostatic interactions with the cationic surfactant and also has a strong binding affinity to BSA. The conductivity of reversed micellar systems increases gradually with the increase of temperature either with or without the addition of CB. The conductivity of reversed micellar systems increases with the addition of tributyl phosphate to the organic phase. No electrical percolation appears with an increase of temperature or water concentration. The conductivity of reversed micellar systems decreases with the addition of CB and decreases further with the addition of both CB and BSA. The conductivity of the organic phase is 3 orders of magnitude lower than that of the aqueous phase under the same CB concentration, which indicates that CB is probably confined to the closed microdomains of reversed micellar systems. The conductivity behavior of reversed micelles has not shown much difference with the methods used for the addition of CB either by the injection method or by phase transfer.